Think 26 seasons of The Simpsons is a bit much? So do The Simpsons

Though it’s still funnier than anything Seth MacFarlane is doing, there are those who might argue that the recently announced 26th season might just be a little too much for The Simpsons, the once-iconic yellow family that’s now just merely liked. Still, if you’re going to hate on them, please know that, like almost everything else, they’ve already beat you to it. Here’s ten of the best.

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1. After the original airing of the season two episode “Three Men and a Comic Book,” a clip featuring Bart and Homer discussing The Cosby Show ends with Bart’s admission that, if he had a TV show, he’d “run that sucker into the ground.”

2. The season four episode “So It’s Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show” pretty much speaks for itself, featuring the family reminscing after Homer injures himself with a beer Bart put in a paint can shaker.

3. In the season five episode “Homer Loves Flanders,” Bart is perturbed when Homer befriends his nemesis-erino, but Lisa is unflappable, leading to this exchange:

Lisa: Don’t worry, Bart. It seems like every week something odd happens to the Simpsons. My advice is to ride it out, make the occasional smart-alec quip, and by next week we’ll be back to where we started from, ready for another wacky adventure.Bart: Aye caramba!Lisa: That’s the spirit.

4. Season seven episode “The Day the Violence Died” also questions the show’s originality, during fictional animation executive Russ Myers’s rant. In response to accusations that his company plagiarized the Itchy and Scratchy characters, he responds: “Animation is built on plagiarism! If it weren’t for someone plagiarizing The Honeymooners, we wouldn’t have The Flintstones. If someone hadn’t ripped off Sergeant Bilko, there’d be no Top Cat. Huckleberry Hound, Chief Wiggum, Yogi Bear? Andy Griffith, Edward G. Robinson, Art Carney!”

5. One of the most memorable critiques comes in the form of Frank Grimes, the antagonist of season eight episode “Homer’s Enemy.” An incredibly hard worker disgusted by dim-witted Homer’s success — “If this were any other country, you’d have starved to death long ago!” he rages — Grimes is ultimately done-in when, during a sarcastic rant, he grabs a high voltage line, which he insists will turn out fine, because he’s Homer Simpson. Cut to Grimey’s funeral — through which Homer sleeps.

6-7. Later in season eight, the “Simpsons Spin-off Showcase” mocks ridiculous television show set-ups — how about Grandpa Simpson as a love-tester that gives Moe romantic advice?! — and takes two jabs at itself. First, in a variety show spin-off, Kent Brockman introduces them as “the family who doesn’t know the meaning of the word ‘cancelled.'” Later, faux host Troy McClure assures the audience things will still be fresh and funny next season — and then shows clips of the family with magical powers, “weddings, weddings, weddings” and a little green alien that only Homer can see.

8. In the 11th season, the knowing parody to end all Simpsons’ knowing parodies aired. “Behind the Laughter” is a Behind the Music look at the Simpsons’ supposed off-screen life, and offers up jokes on everything from the horrible painkiller addiction that results from Homer’s physical humour to Bart’s relentless licensing binge (a t-shirt that reads “Life begins at conception, man!”). Besides calling out the explicitly ridiculous plot line of season nine episode “The Principal and the Pauper,” the most stinging self-inflicted wound might be the last: After a clip of The Simpsons winning a trip to Delaware (which ended up happening, sort of), Homer, in an editing booth, promises it’s going to be the last season.

9. The show’s fifth clip show, “Gump Roast,” aired during the 13th season, ends with a We Didn’t Start the Fire-esque song apologizing for the clip show, and then (prophetically) promising viewers “Have no fears, we’ve got stories for years.”

10. In the premiere of the 19th season, just after The Simpsons Movie introduced us to Spider-pig, Bart’s chalkboard punishment is to write out “I will not wait 20 years to make another movie.”

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